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Between declining gas prices and an improving economy, full-size pickup sales in the US are up 6.5 percent year to date and represent the best-selling vehicle line in two-thirds of US states, according to TrueCar. And the economy is a rising tide of sorts for most vehicle sectors, as gas-powered vehicle prices are up $770 during the past year.

When running a business, having to throttle the hype for a new product isn't such a terrible problem to have. That's exactly was Tesla is doing with its Model X SUV, which is slated to go on sale next year. During a quarterly earnings call (transcript available here), Tesla CEO Elon Musk explained that Tesla is currently steering customers away from the upcoming electric ute.

With gasoline prices soaring this year, one might assume, justifiably, that hybrid and fuel-efficient small vehicle demand must also be on the rise, mimicking the market situation in 2008. However, history may not be repeating itself this time around. AutoPacific President George Peterson says, based on a study by the consulting group, that "small car and hybrid consideration is not tracking anywhere near the rate of the price of fuel as it did in 2008." Of the 68,000 people surveyed, only 21 pe

Apparently the slew of hybrids and a handful of electric vehicles on the roads here have had little, if any, impact on gasoline consumption. The numbers for March show that we are more thirsty for the stuff than ever. According to the American Petroleum Institute (API), our refineries produced more than 9.3 million barrels of gas per day in March, more than any other single month in U.S. history.

The Ford Focus isn't the only vehicle to have its production increased as a result of Cash for Clunkers. The government trade-in incentive program has resulted in a marked increase in demand for vehicles of all shapes and sizes, prompting many automakers to increase production in order to meet surging demand. But while the Obama Administration will be happy to see vehicles with particularly high MPG ratings on the list – American cars in particular – the top sellers are as diverse as

If dealer anticipation is anything to go by, the new Buick Enclave has already exceeded the expectations of General Motors. Buick dealers have put in orders for 6,000 units of the third large CUV to be built on the automaker's Lambda platform, the other two being the Saturn Outlook and GMC Acadia. This is one of those good news/bad news situations, as GM only has the capacity to build around half of the orders taken for the Enclave by the time the SUV goes on sale by June 1st.

Everyone experiences growing pains at some point in their life. Some are more debilitating than others. As it enter its 21st year in the US, Hyundai is feeling a few of its own. In a market dominated by overproduction and a seemingly insurmountable glut of models, Hyundai has a good problem to resolve... maybe. A labor strike in Korea coupled with strong worldwide demand means U.S. dealers can't get enough of the popular Korean-built cars like the three-door Accent -- an issue that may also exte

As we've been reporting, demand for ethanol has been extremely high this year. The cause is not just due to consumer demand but government mandates to double the ethanol supply by 2015 and to replace MTBE, a petroleum additive. According to analyst Tom Kloza, the demand adds as much as 30 cents per gallon of gasoline.